There are many ways that teams 'cheat' in F1 in order to get ahead. Like ordering your driver into a wall, or blocking a corner "by accident." The best 'cheats' don't break the rules, but bend them using technological loopholes. These were the ten most brilliant efforts.

10.) Renault's mass damper in 2005

Renault first used it and other teams followed. It was basically a weight that was suspending by hydraulic springs in the nose (and some in the rear too) of the car that counteracted bouncing in the chassis. If the nose bounced up the weight would move down and vis versa, helping the car to stay planted and stable. It was banned as a "movable aerodynamic piece" even though it was mounted inside the the car and had no effect on aero...

9.) McLaren's F-duct in 2010

The F-duct was simply brilliant. A tiny hole in front of the cockpit gave them superior straight line speed by channeling air to stall the rear wing. Using nonlinear fluidic effects to implement a logic switch for airflow was so smart that the FIA gave it a go as well creating what's known as DRS today.

Maybe not the world's most ingenious cheat, but very significant in 2010 was Mclaren's…
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8.) BMW's turbo engines in 1986

Simply everybody was turning those turbos to eleven for qualifying, but only BMW could get close to 1,500 horsepower out of 1.5-liters. How? Well, since there were no engine limitations, it was okay to blow up engines after completing just four laps. Four very fast laps. They simply put a new one in for the race.

Tyrrell's 1984 car actively racing underweight only to have the water injection system topped up with 2 gallons of water and 140 pounds of lead shot at the end to make minimum weight for the post-race inspection. A clever way to do it given that Tyrrell was not a huge economic power in F1 and their car was I believe one of the few non-turbo cars of the era.

Tyrell's 1984 car actively racing underweight only to have the water injection system topped…
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6.) Brawn's double diffuser in 2009

Formula 1's rules explicitly stated that a rear diffuse could only be so big, but Brawn F1 managed to contour the whole shape of the car to act like there was a second 'double decker' diffuser area stacked on top of the one the rules intended. Other teams protested it was illegal, but it was so effective that it practically secured Brawn the championship.

I you want to win a championship on a tight budget, this is how to do it:

Use Honda's money to develop an innovative new car.

Buy the team for one pound once the Japanese got fed up with Bernie and all.

Win everything while the rest tries to catch up spending millions in the process.

Brawn's double diffuser. It put them so far ahead early in the 2009 championship that by the…
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5.) The Williams CVT in 1993

Not only did Williams use an active suspension, they also pioneered a continuously variable transmission to their advantage.Axel-Ripperknows why:

One that goes unloved a lot: Williams FW15C, the CVT car. Yes, alongside it's active…
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I believe they figured that you'd save almost a second of lap time with a CVT.

Why? First, those .050s shifts add up. Second you are ALWAYS in the correct gear to give the most available power at all times. Even with 7 or 8 speeds, you still wind up not being at 100% power at all times, something a CVT will do.

4.) The twin-chassis Lotus in 1981

DOWNFORCE, DOWNFORCE, DOWNFORCE! This is what Wikipedia has to say about the Lotus 88:

The 88 used an ingenious system of having a twin chassis, one inside the other. The inner chassis would hold the cockpit and would be independently sprung from the outer one, which was designed to take the pressures of the ground effects. The outer chassis did not have discernible wings, and was in effect one huge ground effect system, beginning just behind the nose of the car and extending all the way inside the rear wheels, thereby producing massive amounts of downforce.

1.) Brabham's fan car in 1978

Designed by the legendary Gordon Murray, the Brabham BT46 was literally sucked to the ground by a huge fan stuck on the back of the car. Other drivers complained that the fan picked up stones off the track and shot them at following cars. It won its first race, and it would have won many more, but Brabham agreed to give up the technology after months of development for the sake of the sport.

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